We made it to Amsterdam, I got my bag, bought some chocolate and postcards and sent the latter to people. We had a several hour lay-over in Amsterdam so I changed clothes and brushed my teeth and ate some food. Not necessarily in that order.

Customs is done a little differently there. About six or eight customs officers walk up and stand behind something like music stands. Each passenger, or family, comes up and speaks with one of the officials and they spend three to five minutes questioning you on various topics. I was lucky in that I had gone through my camera bag when I got it back to make sure everything was there and had gotten my clothes out of my backpack so I had verified their contents and they had not left my control since. Most people had given all of their luggage to the baggage handlers at the hotel and possibly not looked through them since. I didn't want to have to go through that explanation.

The flight back to NY was good, pretty uneventful. Northwest really took care of us. I arrived back in NY, and made it through customs in no time. Then spent 30-40 minutes trying to find a Hertz bus. And then back to work I went. Ugggh. Dropped off my 50 or so rolls of film at two different developers and picked up a couple of photo albums and extra pages and I was all set.

And now, a mere 5 months later, I am finished with my journal, my pictures are all on the web and it is time to relax. Special thanks to my lovely and talented sister, Anne, whose journal helped me remember what it was we did each day and who puts up with me on a semi-regular basis. Also, thanks to my parents, who are the only people I know who actually read all of my stuff and send me corrections.

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